The importance of motivation, competence, relatedness and autonomy for regularphysical activity : A quantitative study of the relation between motivation, competence, relatedness,autonomy and physical activity (English)

Abstract [en]

A quantitative study was performed with the aim of investigating whether there was any connection between physical activity, motivation, competence, relatedness and autonomy. Further research was conducted to find out if motivation, competence, relatedness and autonomy were predictors for physical activity. The selected group for the study was 282 members at a Swedish gym that answered to a survey. The survey was constructed in the program SurveyMonkey together with an employee at Karlstad University. The study is part of a research project at the University and a cooperation with a local gym. A link to the survey was sent out to the members at the specific gym, by email, they also had the oppurtunity to answer survey physically at the gym. The measuring instrument The basic psychological need in exercise scale (BPNES) was used to measure how satisfied the participants were in competence, relatedness and autonomy. Behavorial regulations in exercise questionnaire (BREQ-2) was used to measure different motivational regulations and three questions was constructed to investigate the physical activities of the participants by asking about the types of exercise they practice (gym, gym pass and outside exercising). Three different multiple regression analyzes was performed. The first analyze had training type gym as dependent variable and autonomy, competence and self-motivation as independent variables. The result showed that autonomy and competence is predictors for the training form gym. The second analyze had the training form gym pass as an dependent variable and the independent variables was competence, relatedness och self-motivation. The result proved that relatedness is a predictor of the training form gym pass. The third analyze had training form outside exercise as dependent variable and the independent variables was competence, relatedness and self-determination. The result showed that competence is a predictor for the trainings form outside exercise. It could be concluded that the members of the gym use different drives dependent of which type they exercise.